The title above, and the tweaked versions of it, is often credited to Theodor Geisel, A.K.A. Dr. Seuss, but that credit is disputed by some who feel German poet, Ludwig Jacobowski first wrote the words, “Do not cry because they are past! Smile, because they once were!” Jacobowski’s words supposedly appeared in an August 1899 issue of a literary journal. The words of the title above were spoken by Christopher Roche, a mentee of Dr. Seuss, who was delivering a graduation speech and used words from Seuss’s book, Oh, the Places You’ll Go. Seuss’s words were, “We’re off to great places, so let’s be on our way.” Roche followed Seuss’s quote with his words, “Don’t cry because it’s over, smile because it happened.” Regardless of who said it first, or which variation is used, the sentiment, and life lesson it conveys, are words by which we all can live.

Our life’s journey offers us many wonderful, enjoyable, scary and challenging opportunities, some much more serious than others, but most all which can make us sad when they end. Looking at how special they were, it’s very understandable to be sad when they end, and our sadness often fogs the vision of gratitude we should have, that we were fortunate to have been part of them in the first place.

Life offers us many ups and downs. It’s often been compared to a roller coaster ride, exciting, scary, and heart pounding, with many twists and turns, and of course, ups and downs. When we ride that coaster for the first time, we don’t know what we’re going to experience. Every roller coaster has its own surprises, nuances, dips, turns, lefts and rights, and offers a whole lot of different emotions during our maiden voyage on the ride. When we get off of that roller coaster ride, we think of the exciting moments of the ride, the scary moments we experienced, we recall moments of suspense, and many feel it was well worth the few minutes we spent to experience such a ride. That sounds like many of the things we may experience during out lifetime.

During our lives we all experience many things, with each one of us creating our own personal “collection” of feelings about them, some the same as others, and some different. We make many choices that are like getting on that roller coaster for the first time. Anticipation, trepidation, fear, excitement, wonderment, are all possible feelings felt before boarding that roller coaster, and could be the same things we may feel when we make choices in our lives.

Just as we ask ourselves whether we want to take the coaster ride, we ask ourselves what would we like to do with our lives? There are decisions to make regarding higher education versus hands-on training, marriage, parenthood, family, jobs, changing jobs, interests, major purchases, and so many other decisions we have to make as our trips around the sun accumulate.

Pursuing many of the avenues that life has to offer, just like asking if we should get on that roller coaster, or not, often times makes us wonder, after it’s done, if we were happy or sad that it happened. Did the positives outweigh the negatives, were the ups worth taking, or did the downs overwhelm us, and did we cry after it was over, or did we smile because we took that ride? Those are the questions we have to ask our hearts and minds with all experiences we undertake in our lives.

Before making our decisions to cry or smile, we have to understand that though there can be disappointments in each and every endeavor, the experiences may still be able to be something to smile about. Another saying, credited to essayist, journalist, and poet, Ralph Waldo Emerson, one I have run across and used in many of my endeavors, is, “It’s not the destination, it’s the journey.” We may not reach the chosen or hoped for destination, but way more times than not, the ride itself was educational, enjoyable, and definitely well worth the taking.

We’ve all undertaken much in our personal journeys. There have been many different roads to travel, many different decisions to make, many different “rides” to take, so to speak. I may not have conveyed enough, to the many people who accompanied me here and there along my life’s journey, that though sometimes it may have appeared the opposite is true, I can honestly say, here and now, that the times I have smiled have outnumbered the times I have cried, what seems like a million fold in my mind, and I thank all you who have journeyed with me.